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May 11, 2007

G34: Orioles 6, Red Sox 3

The Red Sox left the bases loaded in the first, second and seventh innings. They ended the game having left a season-high 13 runners on base.

They had a chance to pound the hell out of Burres in the early frames and couldn't do it. Mike Lowell was caught looking to end the first, Youkilis flew out to center for the third out in the second, and two pinch-hitters failed to deliver with the sacks full in the seventh: Drew lined to short and Core skied to center.

The last two of Boston's three runs came on bases-loaded walks; the one run that was driven in was Lugo's double in the second, that scored Varitek, who had also doubled.

Lips (5-10-5-4-0-2, 90) was not sharp, though he was also hurt by two poor plays by Wily Mo Pena in right field in the fifth inning (though, honestly, even with a good route, Pena might not have been able to snag the first fly ball (Mora's double)).

Lugo had three hits and Crisp and Youkilis had two. Ortiz had five plate appearances and did not hit a fair ball (BB, BB, BB, K, K).

Javier Lopez was recalled from Pawtucket and pitched the sixth. Devern Hansack was sent down.

21 comments:

Acceptable? How about freaking awesome? If Sexy Lips has another good start, we need to seriously consider whether or not he's truly expendable. For the entertainment value he provides, and mystically his pitching all of a sudden, Tavarez is becoming one of my absolute favorite parts of this team.

To think he's gone from the guy who Sox fans literally seemed afraid of before the games in Philly last year, to potential cult hero, it's incredible. Keep it up, crazy man.

i saw him pitch last year. i think it was the last or 2nd to last game of the year, and it was quite entertaining, most of all his attempt to run from the pitchers mound to second base, dive, and tag the baserunner out...who had plennnnty of time to shrug, and take 2 steps back to the base, at least 3 seconds before julian went into his headfirst dive.

frickin excellent show.

going to the game tonite too with my 3 1/2 month old boy...super psyched for his first game!! and altho i could begrudge the fact that its julian pitchin and not schill, becket, dice-k , or even wake...i've convinced myself julian is just as good of a draw.

Might be a smallish cult -- looks do count for something. But here's to MLB's first combined cult and one-man petting zoo.

What I most admire about him was the way he kept a thick skin through his poor performances out of the pen last year only to emerge as a starter. His starts were some of the few bright spots still flickering when the ship was taking on water at the end of last year.